Appeal No. 2001-2441
Application No. 09/067,923
that this thermal transfer ribbon would have been obvious to one
of ordinary skill in the art within the meaning of 35 U.S.C.
§ 103.
Claim 14
The amounts of Tokunaga’s wax, resin and pigment, and
Tokunaga’s thermal transfer layer thicknesses, which are
discussed above, overlap those in the appellants’ claim 14.
The appellants argue that Tokunaga does not provide a hint
or suggestion as to what effect pigments have on receptive
properties, and that one of ordinary skill in the art could not
predict that thick transfer layers having a 5-80 wt% white
pigment loading would function as a receptive layer (brief,
page 6).
Tokunaga’s disclosed extender pigments include a white
pigment (calcium carbonate), and Tokunaga teaches that the
extender pigment can be present in an amount of 0-30 wt%, which
overlaps the range of 5-80 wt% recited in the appellants’
claim 14. Use of calcium carbonate in the overlapping range
would have been prima facie obvious to one of ordinary skill in
the art. See In Malagari, 499 F.2d at 1303, 182 USPQ at 553.
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